Friday, May 13, 2016

Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. In today's readings in Magnificat we find a short summary of the Fatima apparitions and Mary's message. (And if you don't have a paper or online subscription to Magnificat, I highly recommend it.)

This feast commemorates the first of six appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three Portuguese shepherd children in 1917. Mary exhorted them to "Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice." On her third appearance, she showed the children a vision of hell as a state of eternal pain and despair. She asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph," she reassured the children. On October 31, 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated "the whole world torn by bitter strife" to the Immaculate Heart.

It was during the Fatima apparitions that the renowned Miracle of the Sun occurred. Some 30,000-40,000 people witnessed this miracle.

For those of you who will only accept testimony of a miracle from non-believers, I offer a news account written by a secular journalist at the time. Read the article HERE. (Although I might point out that witnesses of a miracle do not stay non-believers for long. :-)